Various well logging techniques are known in the field of hydrocarbon exploration and production. These techniques use instruments or tools equipped with transmitters adapted to emit energy into a subsurface formation that has been penetrated by a borehole. In this description, “instrument” and “tool” will be used interchangeably to indicate, for example, an electromagnetic instrument (or tool), a wireline tool (or instrument), or a logging-while-drilling tool (or instrument). The emitted energy interacts with the surrounding formation to produce signals that are then detected and measured by one or more sensors. By processing the detected signal data, a profile of formation properties can be generated.
Electromagnetic logging tools, including electromagnetic induction and wave propagation logging tools, are used to determine the electrical properties of formations surrounding a borehole. Such logging tools obtain measurements relating to the resistivity (or its inverse, conductivity) of the formation that, when interpreted, allow one to infer various petrophysical properties of the formation and fluids therein. The physical principles of electromagnetic induction resistivity well logging are well known.
Electromagnetic logging tools use transmitter and receiver antennas. In some embodiments, such antennas may be operable as a transmitter and/or a receiver. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that an antenna may be used as a transmitter at one instant and as a receiver at another. It will also be appreciated that the transmitter-receiver configurations disclosed herein are interchangeable due to the principle of reciprocity, i.e., the “transmitter” may be used as a “receiver”, and vice-versa.
Conventional electromagnetic logging tools employ axial transmitter and receiver antennas having magnetic dipole moments substantially along the longitudinal axis of the tool. Such tools do not have azimuthal sensitivity. In high angle or horizontal wells, measurements obtained with axial antennas do not contain information about the directionality of the formation that allows distinguishing whether the borehole is approaching, for example, an electrically conductive layer from above or below. Such information is used, for example, in well placement applications. Logging tools comprising one or more antennas having a magnetic dipole moment tilted or transverse with respect to the tool axis, such as those described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,508,616, 6,163,155, 6,476,609, 7,656,160, 8,466,683, 7,755,361, U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20140292340, and U.S. Pat. No. 9,389,332 have been proposed. Such logging tools can provide a directional measurement containing information about the directionality of the formation. It further provides more information used for various formation evaluation applications.
For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,656,160, 7,755,361, and 8,466,683, methods of using a logging tool having three tilted transmitter (receiver) coils and a tilted receiver (transmitter) coil in rotation are proposed to determine a full tensor of the electromagnetic field coupling, which in turn is used to determine the subsurface formation properties. The “tilted” transmitter and receiver coils have magnetic moments having non-zero components along the z-axis, i.e., the tool rotation axis, but not entirely aligned with the z-axis. For illustration, two embodiments from U.S. Pat. No. 7,755,361 are shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. FIG. 1A shows two tilted transmitters 104, 108 and two tilted receivers 106, 110, while FIG. 1B shows one tilted transmitter 104 and three tilted receivers 106, 110, 112.